fandomhigh | Heroing [period 2, class #8]

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heroing

Heroing [period 2, class #8]

"Hello, class!" Hammer boomed, striding out before the class once everyone was all assembled. "I hope you all had a nice time on vacation. I, meanwhile, stayed behind to protect the island from any evildoers who might attack in its vulnerable state."

He paused, beaming. "You're welcome."

"Today, class," he continued, "we're going to talk about the media. The paparazzi. Your future best friends, as a hero."

"As heroes," he went on, "we must embrace the media, for they will trail around after us, hanging on our every word, once we've saved them all from mortal peril even just once. They will hound us. They will take our pictures. They will want autographs. There will be merchandise with your face on it if you're lucky." Hammer plucked up and waved a shirt with his face, and a coffee mug with his hammer symbol emblazoned on the side. "But the biggest obstacle, my tiny, young, less bright friends, is the interview."

He began to pace. "Newspapers and TV news crews are always trying to corner you for an interview, and while, yes, they are adoring, they always want to know things like which is your favoritie pair of socks, and how old you were when you lost your virginity. If you have." He eyed the class, because he doubted most of these sad kids had gotten lucky yet. "The important thing is knowing how to give answers quickly on your feet. One wrong answer means you'll have to save them all at least three more times to regain favor."

"So!" He clapped his hands together. "Today, class, we're doing an exercise to prepare you. I want you to pair up and one of you gets to be a reporter, and the other gets to be the hero. The reporter asks questions -- and make sure you're adoring, kids, because reporters always are -- and they need to be as personal as you can stand! Hero, answer them as well as you can without humiliating yourself. After five questions, switch! Hop to!"

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"Would that be your first question?" Arthur asked, raising his eyebrows.

"You're the one who asked a question first," Tahiri pointed out.

She was a brat sometimes.

"I'll take your first statement as an assumption, then," he said, dryly.

Arthur was a brat almost all the time.

Oh, this would be fun.

"Fine, do that," Tahiri countered, rolling her eyes briefly. "So, hero boy, what'd you do to earn that reputation?"

He leaned sideways and repressed the urge to sigh in exasperation. "My name is Prince Arthur," he said, rather than answer her question, "I'd like to hear yours before we continue."

He'd probably forget it.

"Tahiri," she answered, impatience sparking in her eyes before she continued rapidly, "Tahiri Veila. Are you really a prince, or is that your nickname for this class? And yes, I'm counting that as a question, and I don't care which order you answer those two in."

"The Jedi Knight," Arthur surmised, lifting his chin. Something in his shoulders straightened out. All right - he wouldn't forget the name. "I am the crown prince of Camelot, yes."

"Not a Knight yet," Tahiri answered quickly. Not officially, anyway, but only a brief lift of her eyebrows hinted that she was curious how he knew that. She thought she'd noticed a subtle shift in his attitude and reacted accordingly, her tone less confrontational as she asked, "So, what makes the difference between you being the crown prince and being a hero then?"

"Squire, then," Arthur said, easily. "It's my duty to protect my people; heroism is an after-effect, if it occurs."

Even if he had a lot of good hunting stories.

"Just student." One corner of Tahiri's mouth quirked up the tiniest bit in amusement at the term. She tapped a finger against her lips, trying to think back to the kinds of things the HoloNet reporters would try to ask Anakin and his siblings on the broadcasts that had always taken weeks to make it to Yavin 4 but that she'd never missed.

"Is it a lot of pressure, having that reputation at your age?"

Yes, it was a dumb question, and she'd yelled as much at one of the HoloNet broadcasts. But it seemed like the kind of thing Hammer would expect.

"It's simply what's expected of me." Arthur sounded smooth.

Probably because it was his stock answer for any questions geared in that particular direction.

Funny how close it was to the stock answer she'd come to expect. She had . . . one more question, right? Better make it a good one.

"What's the most unexpected lesson you've ever learned on some --" and here she was channeling the stupider HoloNet reporters again, as the way she was rolling her eyes as she asked might hint -- "of your heroic adventures?"

It was an 'interview'. The idea, which Arthur had grasped rather quickly, was that he'd fake it, and he'd never had any trouble in that regard. Don't kill unicorns, he thought, but tossed that aside.

"Not to let pride keep you from seeing what's truly important," and if he actually sounded honest, it's because he kind of was.

Unicorns. Okay, he failed at interviews a little. "And now that that's over with..."

"It's my turn now," Tahiri concluded. Not that she'd ever been in this situation before, ever. Yay for new experiences, she supposed; at least it wasn't real.

Arthur, happily unburdened of any knowledge of what an interview really was, smirked. "So how does it feel to wield a lightsaber in combat?" he asked, because he actually wanted to know.

"How does it feel?" Tahiri's nose crinkled up a little. How did you explain this to someone? "Like, what does it feel like in your hands, or what's it like fighting with one?"

"What's it like," he said, "You must have faced some battles with it."

"A few," Tahiri conceded. "It depends on who or what you're fighting at the time. It's different from fighting with, say, a staff, because there's no weight to it to slow you down, and it can cut through most things easily. But using one against another lightsaber is different from using it to deflect blaster bolts, or fighting, say . . ."

An uncomfortable look crossed her face for a fleeting moment. "Someone with a different kind of weapon. I guess that doesn't really change no matter what you're fighting with."

"Either an advantage or a disadvantage, and the strategy changes from weapon to weapon," Arthur agreed. He considered her; more questions, then. "What's the greatest battle you've ever fought?"

He would've gone for worst, but he held too much respect for the idea that people just didn't want to talk about it.

... Like he wouldn't want to talk about the unicorn.

"I haven't been in any of the great ones," Tahiri said, hesitating; if any of her few missions had been great by someone's standards, it would have to be the one that was the worst, too.

"I'm sure there must be some tales to share," Arthur said, a bit smugly. All right - he was good at the asking questions part as well, he felt. "Interesting battles."

"Mine really aren't that interesting," Tahiri maintained. "This isn't capital ships and fighter squadrons stuff."

The irony was, she'd have given a much more entertaining interview at 13, before she actually had any battle experience at all. These days she just wasn't as talkative.

"No sword... 'stuff'?"

Swords were a little more real to Arthur than any ships she might have mentioned.

"There is," Tahiri said, looking down at her hands. "I always seem to end up spending more time crawling through miles and miles of dark tunnels than actual fighting, though."

"Always a hazard," Arthur relented. "How do you feel your training's been coming along?"

He was rather shamelessly asking the questions he would've anyway, had they met in any other setting.

Re: Pair up and question one another! [03/04/09]

weetuskenraider - 2009-03-05 05:32 (UTC) - Expand

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